Miranda Pennell

Discussion The politics of seeing - a dialogue between dance and anthropology as part of Crossing Borders 2010

Reflecting on their parallel trajectories, former dancer Miranda Pennell and anthropologist Massimiliano Mollona consider dance as a way of understanding people, and anthropology as performance. They will discuss the reasons they both employ using film as a space for reflecting critically on their own practices, considering issues such as the relationships between consciousness and process, choreography and agency, and appearance and meaning.

Biography

Miranda Pennell originally trained in contemporary dance in New York and at the Theatre-school Modern Dance Dept., Amsterdam. Soon she started to explore choreographic ideas through film and video. Her work has centred on a diverse range of human subjects that including soldiers and a marching band, teenage ice-skaters, amateur and professional dancers, fight directors and Rock drummers. The people participate in games whose rules remain hidden from the viewer. Young men and women appear bound together by an uncertain logic, their actions forming ambiguous rituals.

2010 exhibitions include Sixpackfilm, and Vienna Independant Shorts who will be dedicating an 'In Person' programme to her work to date in Vienna. She is currently completing a Masters in Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths University, London, and is developing a film based on British colonial archive photography.